Voters nationwide have seen that
electronic voting cannot be trusted, and New Jerseyans are the latest
to learn this unfortunate lesson. It is now clear that the state’s
machines produced suspicious results in the Feb. 5 presidential
primary. Rather than working to put doubts to rest, the machines’
manufacturer is resisting a proper inquiry. New Jersey needs to quickly
get to the bottom of the problem to ensure voters that in November
their ballots will be counted accurately.

At least five of New Jersey’s
21 counties have reported discrepancies in the tallies of a small
number of their machines. Election officials insist that the
inconsistencies, which involve the number of Republican and Democratic
voters casting ballots, do not affect the accuracy of the vote counts,
but there is no way to be sure.

When the Union County clerk,
Joanne Rajoppi, learned of the problem, she did the responsible thing
and moved to have a respected independent computer scientist from
Princeton University examine the faulty machines. The machines’
manufacturer, Sequoia Voting Systems, responded by threatening to sue.